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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

FamilySearch developments at Georgia Family History Expo

I have heard that FamilySearch will have a new service available at the upcoming Family History Expos event in Georgia. They will have a station with a scanner and software available for attendees at the Conference to scan their own documents including books. This is a trial service and could be incorporated into future conferences if it works in Georgia. Knowing the limitations of software and hardware, I hope this happens. We have been talking about offering a similar service at the Mesa Regional Family History Center for some time now, but have yet to get the project off the ground. I do see a need to offer people the experience of digitizing documents and books for their individual use. From a practical standpoint it offers no more challenges than having a copy machine available for public use. I hope this scanning program by FamilySearch gets off the ground, so to speak, in Georgia and maybe it will show up at future conferences.

I didn't hear the details, but I wonder if the FamilySearch scanning will be the machines they showed at RootsTech last February. Here is a Genealogy Gems Podcast about the scanning:

I hope the genealogical community recognizes the extremely valuable service provided by the Family History Expos. Although there are several major genealogical conferences throughout the year, Family History Expos has been in the forefront of bringing high quality professionally staged conferences to a variety of venues throughout the United States. I have participated in the Expos in the past, mainly here in Mesa, Arizona, but I am now looking forward to more involvement. Right now, I am scheduled to present in Yuma, Arizona on January 17, 2012, then in Mesa, Arizona on January 20, 21, 2012 then again in St. George, Utah on February 24, 25, 2012. I will also be attending all of those events as a blogger and reporting on the proceedings.

If you have never attended a conference or are a regular attender, you will benefit from the Family History Expos' mix of basic to advanced presentations. Hope to see you at a future Expo!